By Callum Ludwig
National Walk Safely to School Day was last Friday 20 May and primary school students around the Yarra Ranges were joined by their parents and police on the trek to school.
The event began nationally in 2004 to get kids active, promoting walking as a safe mode of transport for families to get students to school and to teach primary school-aged children important rules and lessons about road safety.
Acting Sergeant and Officer in Charge at Yarra Junction Police Gavin Rhodes said it’s good to get out and spread the message.
“It helps ease traffic congestion in the area in the mornings and teaches them to hold each other’s hand until the age of 10 when crossing the road,” he said.
“It’s also good for community engagement, for the members here at local stations to speak with some of the children and liaise with the principals and staff at schools, which I think is really important as well, creating some contacts for us going forward.”
Sgt Rhodes attended the walk to Yarra Junction Primary School, which is located alongside the Warburton Highway and around a ‘blind’ corner.
Sgt Rhodes said opportunities like this show kids that local police are approachable.
“A lot of kids, whether it’s by conversations with family or not having any experience around police are scared to come up and approach us, which obviously isnt good if something’s wrong,” he said.
“We’d like them to come up to us, to do regular visits at schools, and more often as kids get more exposure to police and hopefully they’ll be more willing to come and talk to us if there is something wrong.”
Sgt Rhodes said it was an opportunity to be proactive and diminish the reputation held of local police not being available at police stations often to engage with.
“When we are out responding to triple-000 calls, it can be hard for them to engage with us, and the expectation can be that local stations have had trouble with that,” he said.
The reaction was really positive, I had kids talk to me the whole way through and even parents looked shocked when they saw the police car.”
